Rivers that drain the Himalayan mountains transport huge quantities of sediment that is produced by erosion of the landscape. When these rivers exit the mountains and enter the much lower energy floodplain (the Indo-Gangetic Plain), they deposit a lot of this sediment. This can result in channel migration and switching, modifying the pathways that these rivers take and increase flood risk. This research tries to understand how and where sediment is deposited downstream of the mountain front. This requires an understanding of the amount, the concentration and the grain size of sediment that is being transported.

This is part of ongoing research by the Land Surface Dynamics Group at the University of Edinburgh.